What is Power-from-Within?

Power-from-Within includes our ability to be our full selves, to live our creative impulse, to be resilient, to be able to make choices, to care for ourselves and for others, and to contribute to our community. It is our inner power that is not dependent upon outward conditions like hierarchal position, privilege or possessions. Certainly it is influenced by others and by situations, and yet it is still ours to tend, grow, and engage.

Our “selves” and the power-from-within we hold can be likened to a one-of-a-kind multifaceted jewel or crystal. Or it can be thought of as a unique note only we can sound in the symphony of all of life. Some may sense it as a sacred vessel and the ambrosial liquid it contains. It is a gorgeous, unduplicable, precious, treasured expression of creation. We are gorgeous, unique, and treasured.

Individual coaching – whether called personal life coaching or leadership coaching or executive coaching – is all about understanding, building, and using our power-from-within.

The mysteries of building and wielding power-from-within are many and great. I have found these eight key facets contribute to, and are reflected by, our power-from-within:

Sustainability – To be able to take action to nourish and nurture, to care for ourselves and others, to create sanctuary, to be resilient, to walk a path with a heart, to live well on this Earth, to know our connection to and ourselves as part of the Earth, to be able to take action to meet our needs in a good way.

Creative Impulse – To know what we want and to be able to express ourselves in our way, to live our creative impulse and our joy, to contribute our gifts, to make a difference, to live our purpose, to be able to own and live our sexual selves.

Direct Knowing – To receive information from our inner knowing, to be able to own our intuition and dreams, to befriend our untamed nature, to be able to connect with that which is so much larger than we are (God, Goddess, Spirit, Universe, humanity).

Inner Referral – To live from our inner locus of control, to love and accept ourselves, to seek self-knowledge and personal growth, to know our worth and worthiness, to be responsible for our container of self and our power-from-within.

Relationship with Other – To love and accept others, to have empathy and emotional connection, to be able to be vulnerable and intimate, to be in connection with our tribe, to be willing to be influenced, to be of service and to be served, to be aware of our impact on others, to be able to choose oneness consciously.

Choice – To be able to recognize and make choices, to be able to see different perspectives, to be able to take responsibility for the choices we make, to be able to hold polarities.

Storylines – To have life-affirming stories of worth and possibility, to make meaning, to be able to live and speak our truth, to know and live our values and our beliefs, to be able to see through limiting illusions.

True Self – To be our True Selves – children of the stars who are deeply loved and treasured, to know ourselves as part of the Big Picture (Creation, God, Goddess, Spirit, Universe, humanity on this magnificent planet, whatever that Big Picture is for us), to know who we truly are.

I first learned of the term power-from-within from eco-feminist author Starhawk in her book, Truth or Dare, Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery. In it she says:

“Power-from-within is akin to the sense of mastery we develop as young children with each new unfolding ability: the exhilaration of standing erect, of walking, of speaking the magic words that convey our needs and thoughts.

But power-from-within is also akin to something deeper. It arises from our sense of connection, our bonding with other human beings, and with the environment.

Although power-over rules the systems we live in, power-from-within sustains our lives.”

Power-from-Within sustains our lives because it sustains us. It fuels our inner flame, our life force, and our creative will. It’s up to us to nurture and use our personal power to share our gifts, to make our contribution, and to live well.